05 November 2012

The backend engineers think they're hot shit because they solve the big problems. They know how to scale. They look down on frontend engineers who are only solving trivial problems. Backend engineers build the real things. They don't have time to learn about CSS or a wretched language like JavaScript. Without them, a project can never be successful.

The frontend engineers think they're hot shit because they're the closest to users. They know to perfect a user experience. They look down on backend engineers who have no idea how the product is actually used. Frontend engineers build the real things. They don't have time to learn about partial template specialization or wretched languages like C++. Without them, a project can never be successful.

You're both wrong. You must do both or you'll be irrelevant (somewhere).

Over-specialization is the curse of our profession. Stratification breeds condescension. The only remedy is for all engineers to do full-stack programming.